Quoted from Krupps4:All fair points and I have a completely open mind since I haven’t seen it played. My post is my initial reaction, so to be fair I haven’t seen the full game. With that being said,
1. I don’t think the art is terrible. It’s just lazy. I’m not offended by it, but it didn’t require much effort or thought. Maybe that is a function of licensing requirements. However, compare the Zep art to the art on other Stern pins. Do you think it’s as good?
2. I don’t see a lot of theme integration tied to Led Zeppelin. Yeah. There is the blimp, but does it do anything? The pop up spinner is just a spinner. There is nothing to it theme wise. It kind of seems out of place with how it looks. Why couldn’t it be a drum kit with the spinner in the bass drum or something like that?
3. I think the lights in the art blades look unfinished and cheap, especially compared to JJP’s hot rails.
4. You compared it to JP. I think the JP layout is much more original and interesting.
5. You listed a bunch of features in a generic sense. Yes. They are there, but how are they used? Are they integrated in the theme? For example, JP has a raptor cage. That’s a feature fully integrated in the theme.
This is my humble opinion but I think Stern is starting to just operate in a pre set mold, check the box approach because they know everything they will put out today will sell. Maybe they do, but I never get the feel they are trying to push the envelope. I get that they need to make money, but it really does always seem about the absolute bottom line. JJP (and I’m not a JJP fanboy) really seems to try new things and push the envelope (sometime with mixed success) and the price points aren’t all that different.
To be clear, I buy Stern pins. I love my EHoH, but theme aside I don’t see much difference between EHoH and LZ. At the end of the day, I wish Stern as the number one seller of pins, would also be the number one market leader in terms innovations, etc. However, because they are the number one seller they don’t have to be the market leader I guess. To me, that’s a bit of a short term outlook. Again, just my two cents.
Ah, yes... With stern and how they know art, I'm guessing the Zepp license didn't allow much. Which is proof? by the lack of any interesting art and no art on the slings? wtf? I have also heard a comment that the lead of Zepp stated something about streaming the game/music then they should pay for their music rights (that is on top of owning the game). I can try to find a source for that. But if it is true, F##% zepp. If you didn't get enough money from the pinball license, you should of asked for more.
for your comment to #4. yeah so I was thinking, is SR "wore" out of ideas? I mean I LOVE BK3, but sales were meh/warm. The main toy was cool, the upper pf was cool, but to the JP point, there are some fresh new ideas etc. And just based on SR's last 3-4 games, how much innovation has he come up with?
I think it really is odd/interesting that SR gets thrown (recently) all the licenses with restrictions on art (got, sw, zepp, I mean besides the pf layout, all his games (except bk?) were just shit on for bad art. I would say if the SW Comic came out instead of the original, we may consider that an outlier.
It is just interesting, how the look or layout can make/lead people to think things. I didn't like how fast their "trailer" went through the game. It skipped a lot of things. I try myself to not judge until there is better video/rules/gameplay available. I mean the first time I played tmnt, I thought it sucked...same goes for twilight zone.
I'm kind of over stern. With their price increase but meh build quality, the only reason imo, that I would buy one again (nib) is theme or route. I like many of their innovations for ease of repair on route, and other stuff, but they seeem...empty still, or missing something. EH, that's why I'm glad AP, cgc, spooky, etc are all making games. Giving us options is great, but damn these prices